Rededication, remembrances mark 150th anniversary of Civil War

4:50 PM,
May 25, 2013

Iowa monument rededication ceremony.

Written by

Ruth Ingram
| ringram@clarionledger.com

It was 150 years ago today that Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant decreed to a war-weary Vicksburg that wouldn't give up: Let the siege begin.

That marked the beginning of the end to a brutal, unforgiving, hellish year-and-a-half campaign to get the city of Vicksburg and its Confederate troops to fall on their knees, and surrender their spirit and their river to the North.

"We weren't very nice. We starved them. We squeezed them into submission," said Iowa native Marcus Smoot, a major and 26-year active member of the Iowa Army National Guard. "There's nothing civil about civil war." ...